"What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth."
- Roland Barthes.

Tuesday 1 July 2008

The Arrested Development Movie. It's On. Probably.

Arrested Development was one of the most impressive American comedies of the past few decades. Its cancellation after three seasons was quite silly. An aberration only possible within the asinine doldrums of Fox, or so the conventional indie rhetoric would decree. To be honest, the reasons for its decease are inconsequential. Whatever they are, it is gone and our televisual viewing has been all the less for it since... However there is good news for fans of the show as it seems that its long rumoured return in movie form is all but confirmed. Jeffrey Tambor - the hilariously immoral patriarch George Bluth Sr. - had this to say (from Entertainment Weekly):

“After months of speculation, I think we have finally figured out for sure that we are indeed doing an Arrested Development movie," Tambor told EW.com at the premiere of Hellboy II on Sunday. "I am very excited about that. I love that cast and crew and I felt like we had more to say."

Huzzah! Now I fully realise that movie adaptations of television shows are generally quite bad. However, I suspect an AD movie would deviate from the norm on this one. For one thing, the makers of the show have never hidden their contempt for the cancellation:

And that was included as a DVD extra! You see, a successful AD movie would be the cast and crew's chance to show those responsible how wrong they were to cancel. Motivation will not be wanting. The end result? Who knows? It could be woeful, a needless blight on the show's ever burgeoning cult legacy. It could be a sporadically adequate titter inducer, something akin to The Simpsons movie. Or it could soar, a hilarious smash hit bringing it to previously unknowing worldwide audiences and bringing about a fourth season.